All In
by Xfioramaster18
Summary: Day 2 of ChikaRiko week. Rainy Day/Cards. Western AU. In order to help You out of a bad bet, Riko agrees to one night of bad poker with a charismatic stranger.


The rain hit the automobile windows as I looked out at the dreary sand and dirt, the rickety buildings, and the drooping plants that spotted the alleyways and porchsides of the town. "It had to be on such a poor day, too…" I sighed, turning towards the girl in the driver's seat, with such a determined look on her eyes, "Why does it have to be me? You know I'm no good at poker, You."

"You're good with money, right?" she said, "I have a bunch of money riding on this, so I really, really need your help. Whether that 'help' is winning by game today or helping budget my next few months worth of food…" Being an accountant does not make someone a good gambler. I would have told her that right then and there, but she had already heard it and disregarded it. At that moment, she turned to me with a nervous grin. "I wouldn't have bothered you with it if I wasn't desperate, so I really mean it when I say I'm sorry. This girl and I play all the time - she knows all my tricks! I can't risk it by myself!"

I groaned again, turning back to the window. "It's fine. I'll do it. Just don't be surprised when it doesn't go as well as you plan…"

She bumped me with her shoulder, loosening her grip on the wheel for a moment and jerking the car to the side as she did. She grinned and laughed, saying, "Thanks, Riko! I knew I could count on you!" If there were ever any other cars on the road in this ghost town, I'd probably be too nervous to even set foot within the same fifty foot radius of both You Watanabe and anything with wheels. Most people in this town were still on horse-and-buggy, and honestly, if You wanted to care about her budget, she would walk somewhere once in a while instead of taking this monstrosity. This town is small enough to support it.

"Besides," she continued, "She really likes redheads." I blushed, on instinct, not justifying her teasing with any more of a response than that. I had told You time and time again that I wasn't looking for anything like that right now. That was mostly because whenever the topic came up, it was because she was significantly drunker than I was and was directly asking me on her own behalf. She had long since given up, which isn't to say I would say 'no' if the question had the proper context, but… what we had now was nice enough on its own, for what it was worth. At least, it was nice most of the time. Other times, she dragged me to impromptu poker games and tried to set me up with strangers.

"Welp!" she cried out, turning the car with a screech to a building to our side, jolting me out of my melancholic haze rather suddenly, "We're here!" The vehicle had stopped before I even realized what had happened, and she exited and egged me out as well. I looked at the building in front of us. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I probably should have been. It looked like all the other buildings. Nothing in this town was ever quite dynamic enough to catch my interest anymore.

When I entered the building, it looked just like another saloon. There were a lot of those in this place. There were more of those than there were almost anything else, which certainly made my dayjob a little more secure if nothing else. I immediately saw a piano, untouched and looking a bit dusty in the corner, and my hand twitched a little as if subconsciously. I hadn't played in a while; I certainly played a lot less since I moved from the city. Whether it was the dreary town that made me give up, or if it was the giving up that inspired the move, I was still unsure.

Suddenly, I heard a voice, picking up my head to follow the sound to a table across the room. It was loud enough to cut through the crowds spread about. "Ah, You! Over here!" Sitting down at the table with half of a pint in hand was a sort of boyish-looking girl with messy ginger hair, waving her hand excitedly over her head. "Ooh, and a friend!" The main thing I noticed about her was how much she stood out from the crowd.

You led me over to an empty seat across from the girl, who shook her hand with me with a big, silly grin on her face. I'd usually chalk that sort of smile up to drunkenness, but her's seemed genuine. "The name's Chika!" she said, "You're a pretty one, aren't ya? I think You must be trying to distract me from the game, eh?" She turned to You with a cocked brow and a cocksure curve of the lips.

"Actually," You said, stepping forward before I could even speak up to introduce myself, "Riko here is going to be your opponent!" She pulled a deck of cards out of her back pocket and slapped it on the table, messily knocking aside a couple bottlecaps that were strewn about.

Chika didn't look amused. "Eh? That's cheating," she said, poutily crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in her chair, "This is supposed to be your gamble."

You scratched the back of her head and nudged me in the side, pulling out a chair for me with her other hand. She chuckled, "Yeah, well, Riko's not exactly a seasoned veteran, here. Asking her to play for me is my gamble." I told her to stop teasing as I reluctantly took the seat and looked down at the deck of cards. Chika's hands were already reaching for it to grab it and shuffle - they were such pretty hands, which was surprising in this sort of scene.

"Riko, Riko, Riko…" she muttered as she tossed the deck back and forth between her hands, cutting it in front of her as she mused, "Oh, right! You're the pianist, from the city!" She lit up again, looking at me without missing a beat as far as handling the cards went. "Ooh! Can you play us something?"

You placed her hand on top of my head, ruffling my hair like she was peting a dog, and I brushed her aside, before she could make whatever comment it was she was going to make. "I'm an accountant first," I said, realizing that I never got a chance to properly greet Chika without being interrupted and adding, "And it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine," Chika said, setting the freshly shuffled deck in the center of the two of us.

"Before she's an accountant," You said, putting a hand on my shoulder and leaning forward, finding a way to shoehorn the cheeky comment she had planned before back into the conversation, "She's a poker player! Maybe if we win, she'll be in good enough spirits to play you something."

"It's a deal, then," Chika said, smiling at me as Riko patted my shoulder in assurance, "If you win, you play me a song as a punishment game."

"Eh?" I stammered, scooting my seat back and tossing off You's hand once again, "Wait, aren't punishment games usually for the loser?"

Chika replied, "Yeah, 'cause if you win the poker game, that means you've gotten on my bad side. That's the real loss here, hehehe." She motioned You over wordlessly to the center of the table, having her act as the dealer. I wouldn't trust You to deal a fair hand as far as I could throw her, but Chika seemed assured enough. She leaned forward and put on a deep, gruff-sounding voice as the cards started to get passed, saying, "You don't want to be my enemy."

You finished passing out the cards and I lifted up my first hand: absolute crap. Chika only looked confident as ever. If You was cheating, she certainly wasn't doing a very good job of it.

Speaking of, You set the deck back on the table and looked at Chika, pointing over toward the bar. "You mind if I get us a fill-up first, before we start? Riko, you want one?" She looked at me and I looked back and forth between her and Chika before sighing and agreeing to one drink and only one. I was already bad enough at poker without intentionally impairing myself even further.

Once You had left, the air felt a little heavy for a moment, and Chika leaned forward on one elbow towards me. It was as if she was going to share a secret. For some reason, I felt drawn in to her. I felt that if anything in this city was on the verge of something special, it was her, and I had only known her for a few minutes. I leaned in close. If it was You, I probably would have thought she was just going to say something silly or flirty…

"Hey, you're even prettier than she said you were, you know that?"

It was something silly and flirty. Of course it was something silly and flirty.

I fell back in my chair, turning away. "That's not exactly tactful with someone you just met, you know?"

"Eh?" she cried, putting her other elbow on the table and tilting her said to the side like a puppy dog, "It's true, though! Besides, we're not strangers - You's my friend, too! And we're even poker buddies already! But I suppose if it embarrasses you…"

Seeing her so dejected wasn't fair. "That's not what I meant," I said, even though it was almost exactly what I meant, even if the sincerity in her voice made me un-mean it, "Thank you. You're not too bad yourself." The last part sort of rolled off my tongue, and I clasped my hands over my mouth as soon as I realized that I was flirting back. Chika just laughed.

"So, then, is it true?" she continued, "What You said? That you haven't played piano for her in sooooo long? I mean, she was right about you being pretty and all, so I figured maybe…"

"I haven't played piano for anyone besides her, either," I said. The idea of it kind of frightened me. I don't know what I was quite afraid of. When your money is as stable as an accountant's, it's easy to convince yourself that fears aren't justified. I had become accustomed to brushing the question off with just a simple 'no' and leaving the dead eyes as the only hint of what I really wanted to say.

"Ah," she said, letting that hang in the air for a second as she sat back in her chair. For a moment, it was as if she saw right through me. She still had the smile on her face, but now it was softer. I felt like I had seen it before, or rather, I felt that it was comfortable. It was a feeling I knew but couldn't recall, as if I had known her for years rather than this one moment. The kind smile felt perfectly in place on the lips of an older sister or a teacher you loved. "It's just… hearing that made me a little sad, is all. I don't know why."

This was the point when You returned, happily setting our drinks on the table and jokingly checking that neither of us cheated at all while she was gone. She grabbed the deck and slid it around the table for a moment, itching to deal as soon as we were ready. Chika still had a bit of the first beer she had when we entered.

"I'm ready," Chika said, with a new energy in her eyes. The hint of a spark that said she knew exactly how this game would play out.

I looked at my junk hand and sighed, asking You for a complete redraw. She glared at me for not having any semblance of a poker face and I ignored it. The new hand wasn't much better, with only a pair of eights.

"All in."

I looked away from my cards, torn away from my thoughts, by Chika's sudden declaration. She had an arm thrown over her chair and all her cards set face down. Her look was serious, and her eyes were burning with gusto as she stared across the table at me.

"Come on, quit joking around," You said, "This is a big game. You can't go all-in on the first turn."

"Sure I can," Chika said with her chin crooked up in defiance, "It's more fun just drinking with someone who's bad at poker than playing them. I want my money now so I can spend the rest of the night buying out the bar." She looked back at me, leaning forward and gently placing a stack of bills on the table. Then, with a cheeky giggle, she grabbed the discarded bottlecaps and threw them on top of the pile like chips. "Of course, if she folds, none of this matters…"

I looked at her, and then down at my hand. When I did, she told me the hand doesn't matter and directed me back to her. She had her hand over her money, as if reaching out to me, asking me to take it. She was testing me, for everything this game is worth. She was putting my pride on the line, rather than the money, and what's more, for a moment, I actually found myself caring. I had never cared about such a silly thing as my own pride before. It was such an elaborate gesture that I couldn't help but get sucked into the moment.

"All in."

I set my cards on the table, face up, before You had a chance to protest. The two of them looked on and saw the pair of eights. You yelled out in panic, grabbing my still completely full beer and asking how much I drank when she wasn't looking. Chika just laughed and laughed. It was infectious, and I almost caught the faint traces of a giggle escaping my own throat. Of course, at that moment, I couldn't laugh because I was so choked up over the fact that I forgot I only had a pair of goddamned eights.

Chika stopped laughing, wiping a tear away from her eye, and she grabbed the hysrerical You's shoulder. "Relax, relax," she said, flipping over her own hand - a pair of sevens. "You won."

You was left speechless for a moment, as Chika playfully grabbed the money in a crumpled ball and shoved it into You's chest, dropping a few bills to the ground in the process before yelping and bending down to grab them before they flew away in the light breeze that filled the room.

"Ahh, man," she said, standing back up and grabbing her drink, taking a long gulp. In my shock, I had only just then realized that I was holding my own drink in my trembling hands - or perhaps I had switched mine with You's and didn't realize - and had taken a few sips. It was already over. Everything with Chika went so fast, it seemed. Nothing in this town went fast.

"I was shaking in my boots! I knew you were cut out for this! I haven't been so excited over a hand in ages!" She kept rambling on and on as I watched You on the ground, having found a stray bill Chika had missed. "You're great! You have a gambler's heart in you - I have to teach you to play for real sometime! Oh, oh! And we should go to dinner! And, oh!"

She slapped her hands down on the table, shaking You's drink and knocking me out of my stupor so I could reach out to make sure it didn't topple. "And… right now, I need to hear your song! After all that, it'll be the second-scariest thing you do tonight, right?"

She finally broke me.

I laughed.

"Fine, fine," I said, setting my drink down and standing up, "But you only get one, okay?"


End file.
